Counsel for the Electoral Commission, has urged the High Court during a mandamus application hearing to issue the necessary orders that would allow the Commission to complete the collation process at the disputed collation centers.

This follows the disputed parliamentary elections in four constituencies which has drawn a legal objection from the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Justin Amenuvor, counsel for the EC stated that, “If this court does not make the appropriate orders for the EC to go and finish its work in the presence of the very limited number of persons outlined in the Constitutional Instrument (C.I 127) a dangerous precedent for our democracy will be set whereby all manner of thugs, hoodlums, will evade constituency collation centers and even without the appropriate forms prescribed in the C.I. for the election raise the hand of somebody holding an A4 sheet and saying that it is done,”

Earlier, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) lawyers solidified their argument that the collation of results in the Tema Central Constituency could not be completed due to alleged intimidation, claiming that the individual who declared the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) Ebi Bright was not the EC's returning officer.

At the General Jurisdiction of the High Court in Accra on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, Gary Nimako Marfo presented a video as evidence in the mandamus application.

He claimed that the person seen holding an A4 sheet in the video on the day of the disputed declaration was Mr. John Nunoo, not the EC’s returning officer, Mr. Kwesi Brobbey.

As a result, he is requesting that the court compel the EC to finalize the collation process and announce the winner of the election for the constituency.

In the video played in open court to support the NPP’s argument, the Deputy National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Malik Basintale, was heard saying, “Our issue is not with the police, our issue is with the EC Officer.

We will bring him out to declare Ebi Bright, whether he likes it or not he will declare the results here and if the NPP does not like it, they can go to court.”

Mr. Marfo argued, “If the position canvassed in the affidavit in opposition of the interested parties is made to stand it will be a very dangerous recipe in this country. Because all what it will mean is that without the full complement of votes from all polling stations, anybody at all can just mass up at the collation center to purport to make a declaration, which duty rest with authorised and determined officers of the EC to be done in a prescribed manner according to law.”

He further stated, “Collation without incorporating the entire polling station votes, can never be called collation in the eyes of the law but what it seeks to do is that persons who have gone to cast their ballot are being disenfranchised.”